Gaze (film festival)

Gaze International LGBT Film Festival (typeset as GAZE and formerly known as the Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival[1]) is an annual film festival which takes place in Dublin, Ireland each Bank Holiday weekend in late July and early August. Since 1992, it has become Ireland's largest LGBT film event, and the country's biggest LGBT gathering outside of Dublin Pride.[2]

People attend from across the world, with a footfall of at least 9,000 expected over the 2015 festival weekend.

Contents

Gaze's organisers seek out educational and entertaining LGBT cinema[3] which members of the Dublin gay community may not have had the opportunity to view anywhere else.[3] However, the programme also includes films by gay artists which don't contain any gay themes, and films which have inspired or are inspired by gay artists.[4]

The festival began life as the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1992, founded by Yvonne O'Reilly and Kevin Sexton, and was held in the Irish Film Centre.[4][5]

Over 3,500 people attended in 2006, the last year before the rebranding as Gaze.[1]

The Dublin Lesbian and Gay Film Festival was renamed Gaze in 2007.[4] Over 4,000 people attended the 2007 festival, the fifteenth edition.[1][6][7] The festival also obtained a new director—Michele Devlin, the programmer of the Belfast Film Festival—in 2007.[1] An updated version of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, with the story set in New York in the 1980s, was one of the festival's highlights.[7]

The 2008 event, the sixteenth edition, lasted from 31 July until 4 August and included screenings at Dublin's Project Arts Centre and the Winding Stair, alongside its usual venue the Irish Film Institute.[6]

^ abcde"Do look now". The Irish Times. 24 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009. A LOT HAS changed in the 17 years since the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival first sashayed into the Irish Film Centre. For a start, the festival, renamed Gaze three years ago, no longer has to worry about its core audience being carted off by Garda Plod. "When the festival was set up, homosexuality was still illegal,” says Jennifer Jennings, the event's manager. "It may have been in the Irish Film Centre and it may have got great audiences, but to be homosexual was still a criminal act. Things have changed." [...] "Our remit is quite clear,” Jennings says. "We seek out cinema that has lesbian and gay content – films that people from that community may not get to see on the big screen elsewhere. But, like a lot of gay festivals, Gaze has expanded to include work by gay artists that may not have a gay theme. We even go one stage further and seek to include films that have inspired gay artists. So, for example, Patricia Rozema will be introducing the original version of Grey Gardens .”

^"Do look now". The Irish Times. 24 July 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2009. A LOT HAS changed in the 17 years since the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival first sashayed into the Irish Film Centre. For a start, the festival, renamed Gaze three years ago, no longer has to worry about its core audience being carted off by Garda plod. "When the festival was set up, homosexuality was still illegal,” says Jennifer Jennings, the event's manager. "It may have been in the Irish Film Centre and it may have got great audiences, but to be homosexual was still a criminal act. Things have changed." [...] "Our remit is quite clear,” Jennings says. "We seek out cinema that has lesbian and gay content – films that people from that community may not get to see on the big screen elsewhere. But, like a lot of gay festivals, Gaze has expanded to include work by gay artists that may not have a gay theme. We even go one stage further and seek to include films that have inspired gay artists. So, for example, Patricia Rozema will be introducing the original version of Grey Gardens .”